A Scottish man who filmed his girlfriend’s dog performing a Nazi salute has been arrested by the police and could face hate crime charges.

Markus Meechan, 28, from North Lanarkshire, was remanded in custody on suspicion of publishing offensive material online.

Meechan uploaded a video to Youtube which allegedly shows a pug making the Nazi salute and watching videos of Hitler.

He has since apologized for causing offense and claims the video was a prank to annoy his girlfriend.

During the video, the pug named Buddha responds to the repeated prompt “gas the Jews” and performs the Nazi salute when it hears the words “Sieg Heil.”

In the clip, Meechan says: “My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute her dog is so I thought I would turn her into the least cute thing you could think of which is a Nazi.”

A spokesperson for Police Scotland confirmed Meechan’s arrest.

“A 28-year-old man was arrested on Thursday 28 April in relation to the alleged publication of offensive material online (improper use of electronic communications under the Communications Act 2003).

“A report has been submitted to the procurator fiscal.”

Scotland’s Jewish community responded angrily to the video.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities told the Daily Mirror anti-Semitism is not a joke.

“It is a form of racism which needs to be condemned just as we would any other form of racism, just as we would condemn Islamophobia or anti-African racism.”

Ephraim Borowski, director of the Council, said: “To regard the meticulously planned and industrialized murder of six million people solely on the grounds of their ethnicity as a joke is outrageous, and for someone who does so to claim not to be racist, beggars belief.”

Detective Inspector David Cockburn of Lanarkshire Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said the police will not tolerate hate crime and takes “all reports of incidents seriously.”